SAN JOSE – A small, noisy group of Los Angeles Kings fans took over a section of the upper deck of the SAP Center. Their chants began before the game started and only grew louder after their team scored two first-period goals against the San Jose Sharks 18 seconds apart.
It was one of the few reminders Thursday of the great rivalry that once existed between the Sharks and Kings, a rivalry that has remained dormant in recent years.
The Sharks then lost 2-1 to the Kings on Thursday, marking their sixth loss in seven games against Los Angeles, moving them closer to a playoff spot for the third straight season.
The Sharks, meanwhile, have moved closer to the official 32nd place in the overall NHL rankings.
Klim Kostin scored his eighth goal of the season with 1:52 left in the third period to cut the Kings’ lead to one. That certainly increased the announced crowd of 12,266, but the Sharks couldn’t get any closer, as they lost for the 11th time in the last 12 games.
The Sharks and Kings met in the playoffs four times in six years between 2011 and 2016, setting the stage for a geographic rivalry that would become one of the NHL’s most heated. Full buildings, star players, deep teams and all kinds of hate.
It was tough, intense hockey as both teams gave no quarter and asked for none in return. Just good theater.
So when will this happen again?
When both teams are good at the same time, which may not be the case for a while.
The Kings began their rebuild in 2018, reshuffling their roster as they began to fill the cupboard with prospects like Akil Thomas, who scored his first NHL goal on Thursday, Arthur Kaliyev, Quinton Byfield (after winning at the lottery), Alex Laferrière and Brandt. Clarke. They gave Adrian Kempe a big contract extension, acquired Kevin Fiala via trade and signed Phillip Danault as a free agent.
The Sharks, for all intents and purposes, didn’t really begin the rebuild until early 2022, when they cut ties with Evander Kane. Other veterans like Brent Burns, Timo Meier, Erik Karlsson and Tomas Hertl were all gone within two years.
In fact, the only Sharks remaining from the last playoff series with the Kings are Marc-Édouard Vlasic and Logan Couture.
The Sharks are built around a core that doesn’t have much history with the Kings, outside of some of the battles the Barracuda and Ontario Reign have had in recent years.
It will take time for the Sharks to become competitive again, and who knows when they will make the playoffs and meet the Kings in a playoff series.
Most of the central figures from the rivalry’s heyday are long gone.
Stars like Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, who were instrumental in the rivalry, are still in Los Angeles. But Jonathan Quick was traded and Dustin Brown, who Sharks fans hated, retired.
Conversely, players that Kings fans didn’t like, like Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Burns, are no longer on the team.
Do Kings fans really hate the new Sharks players? Do Sharks fans really hate the new era Kings?
We’ll see how good the Kings are once the Sharks’ window to be a competitive team opens again.
The game has also changed. There is less fighting overall and some of these heavy players have been replaced by smaller, more skilled players.
Both buildings were once packed to capacity for games between the Sharks and Kings. That wasn’t the case on Thursday, and it was this small portion of Kings fans that made the most noise.
Sharks fans occasionally shouted “Beat LA.” But the locals did little to stir up the crowd, with only 14 shots on goal in three periods.
Luke Kunin fought Andreas Englund at 12:32 of the second period, but the Sharks didn’t gain much momentum from the matchup.
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